Runtime for mini-series?

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Hello,

i have corrected a couple titles into television series recently that were listed on imdb as a television minisieries (by deleting the keyword mini-series). These titles had more than 4 episodes. http://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?titletypes Now, looking at this link, I am not yet sure what the runtime stated for actual mini-series should be? It says: Actual Total Running Time 240 min or more. Does this mean that it should always display the total running time on top of the title's pages when it comes to mini-series? I have seen both, some state the total running time, but many also state values like 22 minutes or 44 minutes, which would be the runtime per episode, which is the usual way for television series, but I am not sure about mini-series.
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steb

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Posted 4 years ago

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4 years ago
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gromit82, Champion

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Steffib: First of all, the guidelines at http://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?titletypes are described on that page as being "only broad guidelines". If a miniseries was restricted to having no more than 4 episodes, then some of the most famous miniseries of all time (such as "Roots" (1977) and "The Winds of War" (1983)) would be disqualified from being miniseries.

Second, if a title is indeed a miniseries, then the running time given should be the duration of the entire thing, not that of the individual episodes. (See https://contribute.imdb.com/updates/guide/running_times.)

I hope this helps.
4 years ago
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steb

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Thanks for the response gromit82. I must admit that I am not familiar with one of the two mini-series you have listed. If I had seen it have more as 4 episodes, I would have probably corrected it too because of the guidelines under the link. What would be the best approach then? Correct only titles that are listed as mini-series and consist of more than 1 season?
(Edited)
4 years ago
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gromit82, Champion

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Steffib: If a title consists of more than one season but is listed as a miniseries, I would agree that it needs to be corrected.

But for one-season productions that are listed as miniseries, it may be hard to tell whether they really are miniseries, at least not without doing some additional research. As I see it, a miniseries must have been intended to be complete within a limited number of episodes in a single season, with no intention or desire to continue production beyond that. There are lots of series that produced only a single season, but could have gone on longer if someone had been willing to pay for more episodes -- and those aren't miniseries.
(Edited)
4 years ago
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Matt

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You've also got to bear in mind the country of origin. In the UK, full-length series are often only 6 episodes long, but in the US, series that short are often considered limited series, especially for awards.
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